After a period of use, impurities in the crude oil will accumulate on the bottom and walls of oil storage tanks, reducing their effective capacity and affecting their efficiency. Therefore, oil storage tanks require regular inspection, maintenance, and sludge removal. Traditional oil tank cleaning methods in China primarily rely on manual labor. Manual cleaning suffers from high labor intensity, long construction periods, poor safety, low crude oil recovery rates, and environmental pollution.
The cleaning process must ensure that all crude oil is completely emptied from the tank to minimize loss during the transfer process, while also maintaining the quality of the cleaning. Special attention must be paid to safety during both the transfer and cleaning processes.
1. Transfer: This involves transferring the crude oil from the tank to be cleaned into another storage tank.
2. Water Injection and Heating
3. Opening the Manhole for Ventilation: Stop steam heating, open the manhole of the oil tank, and use explosion-proof axial flow ventilation fans to ventilate the tank.
4. Tank Cleaning: Before entering the tank, operators must ventilate the manhole with an explosion-proof axial flow ventilation fan for 24 hours. Then, test the ventilation with an explosion detector and oxygen meter. Only after confirming the ventilation is satisfactory can personnel enter the tank to work. Personnel entering the tank must wear anti-static work clothes and anti-slip anti-static shoes. Wooden shovels or copper tools should be used for cleaning. During the cleaning process, on-site personnel must supervise the process. If necessary, personnel entering the tank must wear gas masks and signal ropes. The time spent inside the tank should not be too long, generally 15-20 minutes, with shifts. Simultaneously, a ventilation fan/blower should be used at the manhole of the storage tank, and medical personnel should be on-site.